Sunday, February 19, 2006

´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ to launch alongside Revolution

´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ is now confirmed for a fall 2006 release, Gamecloud writes. Apparently, Nintendo of America´s Reginald Fils-Aime told a television magazine that the game was due this fall as a Gamecube title and that there were no plans to port it to the Revolution. However, the latter is almost certain to be untrue, since the delay itself suggests a synchronous launch of both the game and the next-generation console.

In their latest issue, NGC magazine reaffirmed their view that the game will offer extra features for the Revolution, calling their story "fact" and "100% accurate". Additionally, this would only make economic sense.

EDIT There is a transcript of the interview available over at Revo-Europe now. Here´s the story (formatting is mine):

Reggie: It's coming out this fall, it's coming out on GameCube. There's been a lot of speculation, people think we're holding it back or that it's gonna be launched just on Revolution. I'm telling you people, it's not true.

SpikeTV: Is it gonna be on GameCube AND Revolution?

Reggie: It's gonna be on GameCube. The thing about Revolution is that it will take a Gamecube standard disc. So while it is going to be a title for GameCube, Twilight Princess, you will be able to play it on Revolution.

SpikeTV: So what will there be, will there be an add-on. Will we have a sword fight on Revolution or anything?

Reggie: You know, it's a great idea. We should talk to Miyamoto about it but, you know, right now the focus is really getting it out on GameCube.

That would strongly suggest that the game will either have special revolution features or even see a dual format launch. As stated above, nothing else would make sense.

there might be some added features (maybe a fishing minigame) but it will NOT be a rev title. Reggie said this last night on spiketv. He made it very clear it is going to be a gamecube game and only a gamecube game, but that you will be able to play it on the rev (as you can play gc games) and he hinted at some kind of bonus. however, it is NOT going to be released as a rev title.

Reggie has nearly confirmed that TP will have additional functionality on the Revolution:

http://www.revo-europe.com/news.php?nid=8803

But perhaps this extra functionality doesn't relate to the controller...maybe it makes use of Nintendo's wifi connection (or even the Rev's final secret). Regardless, it does seem somewhat sloppy of Nintendo to release the most awaited Gamecube title along side the launch of the Revolution. Then again, it would have been just as bad for Nintendo to completely port TP to the Revolution, leaving the Gamecube to die. Nintendo probably saw TP as an opportunity to bring a killer app to launch yet didn't want to betray Gamecube owners. Thats how I see this whole situation.

Basically, if Nintendo told everyone back at last E3 that Zelda would not come out till Revolution's launch, and that there would be revolution functionality, Gamecube would have been dead. Remember, Nintendo's big "killer ap" for the Gamecube this holiday was super mario strikers. They new that the Gamecube was pretty much dead, but they realized that atleast this way it would not appear like it is and they could still milk it for a few more monthes.

If i was nintendo, i would seriously think about having the new Zelda be a pack-in game for Rev.

Just think. You could buy the game for your GC for $50 OR buy it with the new Rev. for $199 (or somewhere around there).

I am currently playing zelda:OOT and I was very imoressed by how good the game is at helping you learn how to use the controler. I can't think of a better game to help people understand how to use the new Rev. control wand. With all the mini-games you can put into Zelda. It is the perfect pack-in game.

Sure Nintendo would lose some money from not selling as many stand alone copies of Zelda, but the number of Rev. Units you would move would be amazing.

I am convinced that it will launch alongside Revolution WITH Revolution control features. There is absolutely no reason that they would not. Imagine having the new Zelda AND Mario as launch titles for Revolution, they would fly off store shelves. Plus as seen with the Nintendo DS Lite redesign where Nintendo denied the redesign, then a few days later released screenshots of the updated DS, never take Nintendo's word at face value.